Information is frequently stored in a storage management system having a plurality of storage tiers or layers. For example, an application may store information in the storage management system for later access. This allows the application to have access to the information, but does not require that the application locally store the information. Each of the tiers or layers of the storage management system provides benefits and drawbacks. For example, the storage layers having a higher performance (those that are able to provide responses very quickly to access requests) have a higher cost to the application that stored the information in the storage layer. Conversely, a storage layer that has a lower cost does not provide responses to access requests as quickly. As applications access the information in the storage layers, the storage management system may move the information across storage layers based upon the number or frequency of accesses to the information and how recent the access to the information is. For example, if the application frequently and recently accesses the information, the storage management system may move the information to another layer having a higher performance so that the information can be provided more quickly.